May All Your Fantasies Come True
by Ad Astra Per Alia Porci
Summary: Postep for Time of Your Death. It's time for Grissom to experience his fantasy... NS by the end.
1. Fantasy

Grissom came marching through the natural debris littering the forest floor and blazed his own trail to his beautiful young employee. "Have you found anything yet, Sara?" he quirked an eyebrow as he tried to peer over her shoulder. He was a couple feet away from her still so he couldn't quite manage a glimpse yet.

"Yeah, actually; I just found an insect around the remains," she glanced over her shoulder to give him a sweet smile before returning to gaze to the tweezed specimen. She pulled it closer to her face for a better inspection. "I think it's a …" she paused as she searched her brain for the proper name, "Darkling beetle?" She meant for the name to come out confident – sounding like a fact – but it managed to rise at the end to form a question anyway. She looked over at Grissom's sceptical face and let out a reluctant sigh, realizing that the species should be determined by the expert, "You'd better come here and double check."

"Of course," he replied with an obliging yet superior smile. He strode the last few feet to the brunette and squatted down behind her and slightly to her right so that they could both examine the creature at the same time. "See this curve here, Sara?" he vaguely indicated to a design on the insect's wing and waited for her to nod. "Well, that means that this is really a Palo Verde Root Borer. But yours was a nice guess."

"Not really," she laughed.

"Well, at least you knew that it was a beetle," he smirked, glancing over to meet her eyes.

"Thanks," she pursed her lips together. "So, tell me more. What does this little guy mean?" She had a mysterious sparkle in her eye as she looked back at him. And Grissom could have sworn that she had glanced down at his lips a minute ago…

He quickly wiped those teasing thoughts from his head. He cleared his throat and with an enthusiastic grin began to show off his extensive knowledge.

* * *

The three young men that helped composed the nightshift of CSI's sat around the break room table patiently waiting to hear their assignments for the night. Greg and Nick were arguing about some new sports video game for X-Box while Warrick was spinning his gold wedding ring on the table in front of him. Occasionally Warrick would interrupt the conversation to remind the pair that they were grown men but for the most part he would just watch his ring twirl and sparkle with the help of the overhead lights.

Catherine demonstrated her excellent timing as she walked in just on time to save Greg from Nick after a rather insulting crack about some team from Dallas. "Okay, that's enough boys," she said in a stern voice that caught Nick's attention immediately; it was the one she had adopted while she was acting as his and Warrick's supervisor. He glanced over and noticed that she held a couple of case files within her arms.

"You in charge for the night?" he asked, careful to make sure the tone came out genuine. That question could have easily been mistaken for a snide comment so he also pointed to the folders in her hand to show that he wasn't being disrespectful.

She confirmed his observation. "Grissom booked the night off." Smartass remarks made their way around the table. Nothing particularly witty, mostly they were comments such as "Has hell frozen over!", but the boys appeared to find them entertaining none-the-less. "Okay, okay," Catherine finally broke in with an amused smile, "that's enough. Time to get to work" She shifted the files in her arms to see which one was on top, "Nick tonight you're with--"

"Wait!" he interrupted, "Sara's not here yet." Catherine glanced down at her watch with a frown. Sara was scheduled to work tonight and she was normally never late; actually, she was usually there ridiculously early.

"Maybe she was in early and, when she couldn't find Gil, grabbed a case for herself--" Catherine suggested, but Nick interrupted again.

"No, she couldn't have done that."

"Why not?" Warrick asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Well, 'cause she, uh," Nick faltered for a minute and then shrugged. "She wouldn't do that. If anything, she'd sit down and do paperwork if she were in early with nothing else to do…"

Catherine waved her hand through the air, tired of the less than helpful speculation, "Whatever. Maybe she's just running late. I'll check Gil's voicemail to see if she left any explanation." She plopped a folder on the table in front of Nick, "Until then, Nick, you are working with Greg on…" She distributed the cases among them and they all set off to work.

* * *

Somewhere in the middle of his explanation of the antennae, Grissom had noticed his audience's attention had wandered away from the beetle. He had tried to ignore this for a bit, attempting to carry on with his lecture undaunted, however it was all in vain. Finally he stopped speaking and turned to meet her eyes, which had been roaming his face for at least five minutes. "…what, Sara?"

She blinked her eyes rapidly and seemed to snap back to attention. "Sorry. Uh, nothing…" That answer was a little less than convincing; still he tried to shake off his beating heart, afraid to give into his wishful thinking.

"Okay, well," he cleared his throat and resumed his lesson, "the flat section of the pinchers right here make this beetle ideal for…" He had been watching her in his peripheral vision and stopped talking again as he saw that she hadn't turned back to the bug at all. She was still just staring at him. "Sara?" his voice gave an embarrassing crack as he turned back to meet her gaze but found her focus now locked on his mouth. "You, uh, do you not care about the beetle anymore? 'Cause I don't have to--"

"Sorry," she apologized again. "I do care about the beetle. It's very interesting but…" she chewed on her bottom lip for a minute, seeming to be working up the courage to finish off the thought.

"…but…?" Grissom prompted, his hopes soaring up into the atmosphere.

"But, I found something that's even more… interesting…" The tone in her voice and look in her eyes, plus the fact that they were still staring at his lips, left very little mystery within her coy response. In a sudden surge of bravery, Grissom leaned towards her and acted out a fantasy that he had held for as long as he could remember. The tweezed beetle fell to the forest floor, utterly forgotten, as their lips crashed together.

* * *

"You have forty-two new messages," the deep electronic voice announced monotonously. Catherine laughed and shook her head as she settled back in Grissom's chair to search through his voice mail looking for one from Sara. It was just her luck that Grissom hadn't checked his messages lately. "First message:" it announced, followed closely by a shrill tone. "'Hi, Dr. Grissom? My name is Professor Dax Gannon from LVU and we were wondering if you'd be interested in guest lectur--'

"Second message:" the electronic voice interrupted the Professor as Catherine got bored and hit the button to hear the next. "'Grissom, I need the budget reports complete and on my desk by Friday! I mean it this time!'" Catherine laughed as she heard the stern voice of their boss, and then spotted the papers for the budget, due tomorrow, sitting on the corner of his desk untouched. "Looks like I'm budgeting tonight…" she murmured to the empty office, half-amused and half-annoyed.

Catherine listened to four more messages before Sara's voice filtered through the phone. "Hey Gris, it's me. I'm running a bit late today; but I'll be there soon… Call my cell if you need me." Having found the message she was looking for, Catherine hung up the phone; Grissom could deal with the rest… or more likely, she'd listen after she did the budget.

Catherine pulled her cell phone off her belt and dialled Sara's number. She picked up after two rings. "Sidle," her voice floated through the cell.

"Hey Sara. I'm just calling to let you know that I'm acting supervisor toni— are you with Grissom?" Catherine asked after hearing a familiar voice in the background.

"What? Uh, no. I'm not with Grissom… why?"

"I thought I just heard his voice," she still sounded suspicious.

"That's, uh, a tow truck driver. Yeah, I had a flat tire and he's giving me a ride back to his shop… why would I be with Grissom?" Sara pushed. She was trying to find out exactly what Catherine had thought was going on.

"I don't know," she responded with a shrug despite the fact that Sara wouldn't be able to see it. "He's taken a personal day tonight--"

"So you think it's to go out with me?" Sara attempted a laugh but fell short. "_I'm_ scheduled to work tonight; if I were off tonight then there'd be cause for suspicion."

The temporary supervisor laughed. "Very true."

"Anyway, I'm almost at the shop and I'm going to check out the damage to my car and then I'll catch a cab to the lab."

"Where are you exactly?" Catherine asked. As luck would have it, the location that Sara gave her was very close to the scene she had just sent Nick and Greg to. "I think the boys are just heading out … I'll try and grab one of them to swing by and get you and you can go straight to the scene with them." Sara reluctantly agreed and said goodbye to Catherine, who promptly hung up and dialled Nick's number. "Nicky? Have you already left the lab?... Good; I need you two to stop and pick up Sara on the way… fine, I need you _or_ Greg to stop and pick up Sara on the way… I knew I could count on you," she laughed as Nick dramatically agreed to go the entire two minutes off route to get his new partner. She gave him the address and instructed him to phone Greg so he knew that Nick was going to get Sara and consequently arrive a tad bit late.


	2. Reality

On the other side of the city, in an apartment that would have easily won Danny Tanner's stamp of approval for cleanliness, Grissom was in heaven. His lips were locked with a beautiful, young, half-clothed woman and this was quickly becoming the best night of his life. With the exception of an ill-timed cell phone call and a brief, awkward exchange about limitations and consequences on the ride over, the only communication either of them used was physical.

As his shirt was thrown across the floor to join hers, Grissom decided only one thing was missing from this scenario… so he pulled away from her for a minute so that he could fix that. Though he was weary to open his eyes and face her, he managed to focus solely on her eyes so that he could gather enough courage. After a good minute of silent gazing, he finally found his voice again, "I love you, Sara. I always have and always will."

She smiled at him almost bashfully and replied, "I love you too, Bert." She leaned in to hungrily attack his mouth with hers but he jerked back. "What's wrong?" her brows were furrowed in confusion. She thought that's what he had wanted to hear…

"She doesn't call me by my first name," he whispered, averting his eyes as the spell was broken. "And she'd never call me Bert."

"Why not?"

"'Cause it's not my name," he sounded hurt; one would almost think that it had been the real Sara that had forgotten his name.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the brunette, hired from Caprice's agency to be known as 'Sara Sidle' for the night, replied. "I thought your first name was Gilbert."

"It is," he propped himself up on his elbows to face her. "But the few who use it call me Gil, not Bert. But Sara… she always calls me Griss or Grissom."

"Sorry… I just assumed—it doesn't matter. Let's just pretend that didn't happen. Say your line again, and we'll take it from there," she prompted.

"I don't think I can do anymore pretending tonight," he sighed, motioning her to get off of him. "Thank you though. You made everything tonight perfect." They got up off of the couch and 'Sara' went to collect her clothes.

"Can I ask you something?" the girl asked, chewing on her lip. She was afraid of crossing the line here and not getting paid, but more than that she was curious. Grissom hesitantly nodded his head. "This girl is real, right?" He nodded again. "And you're her boss, so you see her every day?"

"Well, six days a week anyway," he amended.

"Does she know how you feel? Have you ever told her?"

There was a long pause here as Grissom considered throwing her out the door instead of answering such a personal question… however, there was an odd comfort in actually saying this out loud – even if it was to a complete stranger. Actually, saying it to a stranger made it easier; there was no fear of judgement or exposure since the likelihood of ever seeing this woman again was slim to none. So, he shook his head sadly, "I haven't told her, but she knows. She's alluded to it a few times..."

The woman was quiet for a minute, so Grissom decided to fill the silence. He didn't know what possessed him to, but he told her about the time Sara asked him out a few years ago. Maybe it was just to prove that he wasn't entirely pathetic; that had he wanted to – or more accurately, been brave enough to admit that he wanted to – he could have her… Well, could have had her. Back then.

"So why didn't you go out with her?" Now the woman seemed confused. This was one of the mildest fantasies she had ever participated in; it was clear that all this man wanted was Sara. He hadn't chosen the most romantic set-up, but unlike most of her clients, his was a fantasy that seemed as if it could and should happen in real life. He loved her; why hadn't he gone out with her? Grissom was still asking himself the same question and so the best answer he could offer was a shrug. "Why don't you tell her now, then? Call her up and ask her out. You could have this," she made a wild gesture with her arms that he assumed was supposed to incorporate the entire night they had spent together, "for real. No more make-believe."

"I can't," he whispered. He took several deep breaths and fought to control his emotions. He knew that he had lost his chance, but it was almost as if it wasn't real until he had just said it out loud. For the first time, he felt the harsh reality crash down around him: he no longer had any claim on Sara Sidle; she had moved on.

He felt the woman from Caprice's Fantasy Business put her hand on his shoulder and begin to rub in a soothing circular motion. "You too afraid?"

"Yeah. And too late," he admitted. "I, uh," he cleared his throat to banish the wavers that were attempting to sneak in, "I overheard her talking to someone the other day – a co-worker – and she's with him now. They were in the locker-room arguing who was coming over to whose house that night; apparently he had stayed at her apartment for the previous four days and that night he wanted her over at his house. She said if they went to his place they'd just end up playing video games all night… he said that--"

"That doesn't necessarily mean they're together. They could just be friends hanging out…" the brunette interrupted to inject some optimism… and to avoid a transcript of the exact conversation. But neither one of them was silly enough to consider it as a real option.

"She sounded really happy," there was a wistful look in his eyes and he had refused to look at the stranger when he spoke. He let out a defeated sigh. "I was hoping that this," he gestured between the two of them, "might help me get her out of my system; experience the fantasy so that there's no more wondering…"

"…did it work?" she asked sympathetically.

He shook his head and simply answered, "No."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too," he replied as the woman finally made her way to the door. Grissom closed and locked the door after she left and sank back against it, too apathetic to bother moving to walk over to the couch. He scanned his almost sterile-looking apartment and felt another wallop to his heart. He had never before realized how much it could hurt to lose something that you never had in the first place.

Nick rolled down his driver side window as his truck crept up to where Sara was standing in front of auto-shop. He let his dark sunglasses slide to the end of his nose so that he could peer at her from over the rims of them. With his elbow propped cockily out the now open driver's side window, Nick stopped beside her and called out in a deep, teasing tone, "Hey there, 'lil lady. Need a ride?" Sara smiled despite herself, though she made a point to roll her eyes. She walked around to the passenger side and climbed in. As soon as she was safely buckled in, he headed back to the road.

Even foregoing an easy comeback to Nick's bait, Sara immediately began complaining about her unreliable vehicle. "If it's not the brakes, it's the exhaust or an oil leak or a faulty radio or a flat tire," she ranted animatedly. "Honestly! They should just turn my car into scrap metal and the lab can spring for a new one!"

"Sara," Nick chuckled, "Your car is like three years old!"

"And about a year of that has been spent in the shop getting repairs! It's a piece of crap!" her voice sounded bitter, but a smile had snuck back to her face at the sound of Nick's laugh.

"I love that car," he glanced over at her with a large grin taking over his face.

"You love the back seat of my car," she grinned back at him, a slight red tinge infusing her cheeks as she remembered their trip to the drive in the previous weekend.

"If you want to get technical, I love _you_ in the back seat of that car."

"Well, we can use any car for _that_ purpose…" she said mischievously.

"All right, then I'm on your side. Scrap that car and get a new one… with a HUGE back seat," he winked at her.

"I'll see what I can do," she promised.

"Good." He stopped the car as they hit their first red light. He took the opportunity to tease her face-to-face. "You know… you could have avoided this headache today had you just taken the ride in with me like I suggested…"

"I knew you were going to bring that up," she grumbled.

"Well I'd be irresponsible if I didn't. You are single-handedly killing the environment!" Sara laughed at him. "I'm serious, missy. We've woken up separately twice in the past month. We're going from the same place, whether yours or mine, to the lab at exactly the same time. It's only proper that we car pool. Think of the environment, Sara!" he exclaimed in mock desperation.

"Well… gas prices are high…" she reasoned with a smirk.

"That's all I'm saying," he smiled and leaned over to briefly kiss her. Apparently his attempt at a chaste kiss wasn't short enough for the driver behind them, 'cause they were interrupted by an irritated honk from the car following them. The light had turned green, and Nick released the brake and turned the majority of his attention back to the road.

They continued their light banter for the rest of the car ride, discussing the possible ways they could spend the money they'd be saving on gas everyday. "Oh, by the way," Sara said, leaning over to place a quick kiss on his cheek, "Thanks for coming to get me."

"Don't mention it," he laughed. "Helping damsels in distress is what I live for." He gave a charming grin and puffed out his chest in a manly fashion; it was the same look he had given her the other day when he had beat her at some silly Marvel game for his X-Box.

Sara giggled, "Hey, Superman, hang up the cape for now. We can role play later when we have more time…" she gave him a seductive smile.

"Nah," Nick smiled at her affectionately. "With you as my reality, I have no need for make-believe."

THE END

* * *

A/N: Haha,did I trick ya? Sorry GSR, I'm a Snicker. Thanks for reading. Leave a lovely review or a bitter flame if you have time; either way, thanks for the effort. 


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